The most inspiring place to be.

Coaching football taught me not to believe in New Year’s resolutions. Here’s the reason why: timing. Resolution is a convoluted word for ‘change.’ New Year’s Eve is just one opportunity for change but not the best one because flipping the calendar isn’t enough motivation that leads to sustainable change. Long-term change needs something else to fire you up. Like football season. I look at football much differently than the rest of the world. I view football as an incredible opportunity to do what we all secretly desire to do – grow. Get better. Break past limits. Reach full potential. Football season is the true time for resolutions because if you don’t make serious positive change, if you don’t make strides to get better each day, the opponent will bust you up play after play until you crack to pieces. Therein lies the true motivation to making resolutions – the fear of being embarrassed by the guy lined up across from you. The same applies to anything in life. If you don’t grow, if you don’t get better, life will beat you to the ground.

I want to win as much as anyone in the world but it has to be done a certain way to have any meaning. It starts with the environment. Here’s the number one expectation for any Longhorn, veteran or rookie – clean environment. That means a strong, healthy workplace. Football practice and football games are workplaces. The Oakville Longhorn will never have a poisoned workplace. Here’s the reason why – unresolved conflict is the worst evil on Earth. Unresolved conflict is the leading cause of losing and failure by whatever definition you attach to it. Unresolved conflict is the worst waste of time conceivable. Nothing is worse than wasting valuable time off the only life on Earth that we will have, in any type of sick, twisted conflict. Clean environments win championships. Polluted environments don’t. Conflict is a disease that pollutes the environment. Toxic workplaces are evil. Hell on Earth. It will never happen with Longhorn football. Guaranteed. Promise.

Number two expectation – be uplifting. I need to be inspired. Be a soul of a lifter. If you are unwilling or incapable of inspiring the team, you will be unwelcome. If you lift the team, you will be welcome. Conflict is depressing. The Oakville Longhorn football environment will be the most uplifting place imaginable. No joke. No kidding. No compromise. No exception. There’s enough depression in the world. The Oakville Longhorns will never contribute to it.